Retail market indicators

In our monitoring of the retail energy market for gas and electricity, we collect and analyse a vast range of data. Our retail market indicators give a snapshot of this monitoring. They draw from a comprehensive framework which underpins our ongoing monitoring, including our annual update on the retail energy markets in Great Britain. You can view these updates in the related publications section below. 

These market indicators and data are not intended for use or to be relied on for any commercial purposes. View copyright and disclaimer.

If you have feedback on the indicators, please contact us.

There were 18 active suppliers in the domestic gas and electricity retail markets as of September 2025. This consisted of 16 suppliers active in both gas and electricity, 1 in gas and 1 in electricity, with no entries or exits during the third quarter of 2025.

For our classification of suppliers by size see the ‘information tab’ of the market share indicators either for electricity or gas. 

Wholesale prices were somewhat volatile over January as low gas storage across Europe has increased market sensitivity to weather changes. A cold snap at the start of the year pushed up gas and power prices, particularly prompt prices, but these eased throughout the middle of the month as the cold weather ended. Forecasts of another cold snap for the end of the month and into February pushed prompt and front month prices back up again, particularly gas, whilst power prices fluctuated throughout January as wind generation changed. Longer term forward prices have been more stable amid continued strong gas supply from Norway, LNG markets and storage withdrawals. Consistent storage withdrawals in the EU have reduced overall storage fullness from c. 60% at the start of January to c. 40% at the end, raising some market concerns for the refilling season over the summer (EU storage is currently at a 3-year low). However, this was counteracted by US LNG availability which ramped up throughout January following their own bout of cold weather. Geopolitical uncertainty increased price volatility somewhat, particularly with increasing US-EU tensions over Greenland and US-Iran tensions, but both of these situations appear to have calmed by the end of the month. The situation in Venezuela had little impact due its relative unimportance for gas markets (as opposed to oil). 

For more detailed updates on wholesale prices visit Wholesale market indicators | Ofgem.

January 2026, the number of new fixed tariffs on offer increased compared to December 2025. Around 81% of these offers were available to the whole market, rather than exclusive to specific customers with most prices lower than the price cap for 1 January to 31 March 2026. The average fixed tariff was priced at £1,649 in January 2026, £13 higher than in the previous month.

The average price of SVTs with large legacy suppliers for a typical dual fuel customer paying with direct debit increased at £1,758 from £1,755 which is aligned with the current price cap. The market cheapest tariff increased this month, now standing at £1,510 compared to December 2025. The cheapest tariff basket increased from £1,557 in December 2025 to £1,560 in January 2026. See methodology for information on how the cheapest tariff basket is calculated.

The update of all profit and average bill indicators based on Consolidated Segmental Statements (CSS) has been paused. Only three large domestic legacy suppliers (British Gas, EDF and Scottish Power) and one non-domestic supplier (SSE) had submitted a CSS under the regulation before consultation in 2023. This information was insufficient to generate market representative statistics. A review of the CSS obligation is now completed and will expand CSS reporting to most of the domestic and non-domestic market. This will apply to supplier financial accounts for 2023 onwards with publication 10 months after the company’s financial year end. We intend to resume the publication of these indicators as soon as new data becomes available.  

Read Reviewing the Consolidated Segmental Statements – our decision for more information. 

Read Energy companies’ Consolidated Segmental Statements (CSS) for more details. 

The Market Stabilisation Charge was a temporary measure in place from 14 April 2022 to 31 March 2024 which required all domestic suppliers acquiring a domestic customer to pay a charge to the losing supplier when wholesale prices fell considerably below the relevant wholesale price cap index. For more information about the MSC read - Market Stabilisation Charge dashboard | Ofgem. 

In December 2025, the total number of switches across both fuels fell by 18% compared to a 27% decrease in November 2025. Electricity switches decreased 16% from 267,756 in November 2025 to 223,748 in December 2025, while gas switches decreased 20% from 207,630 to 165,499 over the same period. The share of customers switching to other suppliers decreased by 6% for electricity and 5% for gas in December 2025 compared to November 2025. 

Suppliers’ Customer Credit Balances (CCBs) are an important aspect of the retail energy market, and this is reflected in licence obligations in relation to both consumer standards and supplier financial resilience.

The data below reflects Ofgem's chosen policy measure. This is for Fixed Direct Debit domestic customers.  This focuses the analysis on how households are impacted by CCBs. We have ‘netted off unbilled consumption’ meaning that energy you have paid for but not used does not feature. Finally, as Customer credit balances are seasonal (they rise in summer months and are then spent in colder winter months) we have included the yearly average to disaggregate the seasonal variation from its underlying trend.

These figures reflect households that are in credit, the values are true as of the last day of each calendar quarter (31 March, 30 June, 30 September 31 December).

Finally, the use of quartiles may be impacted as usage changes in the future, which would need to be reviewed and recognised.

This data is published by the end of March, June, September and December each year.  For further information see customer credit balances explanatory note.

We have selected this range of indicators to support general understanding of the market, including how they contribute to the key priorities outlined in our strategic narrative. We also aim to provide a picture of the market where it is not produced elsewhere, or where there is scope for us to set a clear methodology for the data.

Our data comes from sources that are either publicly available, provided by third parties or from responses to Ofgem information requests. Specific sources and relevant dates are listed with each indicator. We are grateful to third parties for allowing us to reproduce their data. 

Most of these indicators will be updated quarterly while still allowing access to historic information. Updates will depend on the availability of data for an indicator. 

We will review the indicators periodically to ensure they continue to help promote transparency and understanding of the retail energy market and as additional sources of information become available.